I just skimmed through a very interesting posting on Steve Ray mis-citing Chrysostomon the authority of the papacy, posted by, well.... someone from an orthodox perspective, go figure.
Huh, I posted that exact same passage from Whelton on this blog not too long ago. I think my citation was a little longer, though. Anyway, it is a good, popular book.
For anyone who would like to read a more extensive account of this topic (the first 75 pages covers the entire early church period), get "Papal Primacy: From Its Origins to the Present" by Klaus Schatz.
From what I have read from the book (which was limited to the first 100 pages or so), he seems to be a fairly conservative Catholic professor of Church History at a university in Frankfurt.
He admits that the modern dogmatic form of Papal primacy didn't exist in the early church. He even debunks many of the same arguments used by RC apologists (in a non-polemical fashion). I believe that he takes the more 'providential' view (similar to development of doctrine) to explain why the papacy is necessary. However, the book is simply a historical work, not a polemical one.
Huh, I posted that exact same passage from Whelton on this blog not too long ago. I think my citation was a little longer, though. Anyway, it is a good, popular book.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who would like to read a more extensive account of this topic (the first 75 pages covers the entire early church period), get "Papal Primacy: From Its Origins to the Present" by Klaus Schatz.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read from the book (which was limited to the first 100 pages or so), he seems to be a fairly conservative Catholic professor of Church History at a university in Frankfurt.
He admits that the modern dogmatic form of Papal primacy didn't exist in the early church. He even debunks many of the same arguments used by RC apologists (in a non-polemical fashion). I believe that he takes the more 'providential' view (similar to development of doctrine) to explain why the papacy is necessary. However, the book is simply a historical work, not a polemical one.